KUALA LUMPUR: Comments from the US Federal Reserve that suggested it was nearing the end of its tightening cycle helped boost the FBM KLCI above the 1,700 mark.
At 12.30pm, the FBM KLCI had put on 14.88 points at 1,701.43. There were 976.16 million shares valued at RM969.84mil. There were 348 advancers versus 391 decliners and 319 counters unchanged.
IHH Healthcare saw strong buying interest when news broke that Khazanah Nasional was divesting a 16% stake in the healthcare provider to Mitsui & Co. The counter surged 34 sen to RM5.59.
Other stocks seeing momentum were CIMB gaining 12 sen to RM5.87, Axiata rising 20 sen to RM3.83, IOI climbing 18 sen to RM4.42 and PPB adding RM1.04 to RM18.04.
Genting stocks continued to weigh following the fallout over the cancellation of the Fox theme park. Genting Malaysia slid nine sen to RM2.91 and Genting dropped 10 sen to RM6.47.
On the broader market, Heineken cimbed 50 sen to RM19.72 and Carlsberg gained 40 sen to RM19.40 while TIme dotCom rose 32 sen to RM8.35.
Dutch Lady
, meanwhile, weighed 20 sen to RM63.40 and Hengyuan fell 19 sen to RM4.73.
OIl prices rose ahead of teh G20 Summit meeting on hopes that there will be breakthrough on trade talks.
WTI crude gained 29 cents to US$50.70 a barrel and Brent rdue rose 38 cents to US$59.14 a barrel.
In currencies, the ringgit rose 0.3% against the US dollar at 4.1890. It fell 0.45% against the pound sterling at 5.3793 and 0.35% against the Singapore dollar at 3.0570.
Subscribe now and receive FREE sooka plan for 1 month.
T&C applies.
